WIRED Awake: 10 must-read articles for March 30

Your WIRED daily briefing. Today, SpaceX is scheduled to launch its first reused rocket, Samsung has launched its Galaxy S8 flagship phone, the new edition of Windows 10 will deliver only modest updates and more.

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SpaceX is to attempt its first ever launch of a reused Falcon 9 first-stage rocket booster at the Kennedy Space Center later today, at 23:27 BST (BBC News). The rocket will carry the SES-10 communications satellite, which will provide TV and telecom services to the Caribbean, South and Central America. The booster was first used to send cargo to the International Space Station last year, and SpaceX will also be attempting to re-land the rocket on a drone barge at sea. If successful, it's set to open the door to re-used Falcon 9 boosters coming into regular launch rotation, which will see a slight decrease in launch costs and a significant boost to the availability of the hardware needed to get spacecraft into orbit. SpaceX will be streaming the launch live this evening.

Samsung has revealed its latest flagship handsets, the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, which represent the Korean hardware maker's chance to reverse the brand image damage from last year’s Note 7 disaster, and the corporate governance furore in which the company is currently embroiled (WIRED). Doing away with as much bezel as possible, Samsung has squeezed a 5.8-in screen onto the 148.9 x 68.1 x 8mm 155g Galaxy S8 and a 6.2in screen onto the larger 159.5 x 73.4 x 8.1mm, 173g Galaxy S8+. The aim of the bezel being pushed outwards is again to make the Galaxy S8 feel smaller yet offer a big-screen viewing experience, while the Home button is hidden underneath the screen itself. Both phones running Android 7.0 have a top-of-the-range 10nm, octa-core, 64-bit processor – the exact flavour will depend on the market and mobile operators. You get 4GB of RAM, 64GB memory, which is also expandable via MicroSD up to 256GB. Battery power is 3,000mAh in the Galaxy S8 and 3,500mAh in the "Plus".

Weed firms are using Instagram influencers to dodge regulations

Microsoft's latest iteration of its operating system, named Windows 10 Creators Update, is coming out on April 11, and will be free to all existing Windows 10 users (Ars Technica). While the new version has some interesting new features, designed to allow it to work with augmented reality headsets, these are in place for the benefit of developers creating software for forthcoming hardware, rather than for consumers. End users get more limited benefits, including of Game Mode improvements designed to improve performance, clearer - not not significantly more private - privacy settings, a new version of the Edge browser, a version of MS Paint that makes it easier to create 3D images, and, perhaps most helpfully, greater user control over when the operating system reboots to update itself.

It's well known that lead is particularly harmful to children, but a new paper has helped quantify exactly how badly even moderate lead exposure affects cognitive function and - as a related effect - socioeconomic status (Popular Science). Aaron Reuben and his team from the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University, North Carolina in the USA drew on data from a long-term cohort study involving 1,037 people born between 1972 and 1973 in Dunedin, New Zealand. They specifically looked at 565 people who had been exposed to lead by age 11, with an average blood lead level of 10.99 micrograms per decalitre - more than twice the five micrograms now regarded as a dangerous level. The researchers found that the people who had been exposed to lead as children not only had a lower IQ in later life, but that their IQ actually declined by 1.61 points for every 5 micrograms per decalitre. Ruben also writes that "lead-exposed study member’s occupations tended to move down the socioeconomic ladder relative to their parents’ occupation”. While lead exposure in most developed nations has generally decreased, largely thanks to the introduction of unleaded petrol, the study serves as a stark notice of the dangers of even quantities of lead once regarded as small. However, even today, children in the polluted town of Flint, Michigan, in the USA are being found to have blood lead measurements as high as 38 micrograms per decalitre.

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The particles making up dark matter could be identified through gravitational waves, according to a recent study (WIRED). The research, led by Asimina Arvanitaki at the Perimeter Institute and colleagues from Stanford and NYU, says the question about what the Universe is made of could be answered by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the USA. These instruments were made famous last year when they saw gravitational waves - created by the merger of two black holes - for the first time. "In the next few years, Advanced Ligo may see gravitational waves (GWs) from thousands of black hole (BH) mergers," Arvanitaki and colleagues wrote. "This marks the beginning of a new precision tool for physics." Dark matter is thought to make up 27 per cent of the Universe, and can only be detected through the gravitational effect it has on other matter.

New studies published in the journals Molecular Psychiatry and Addictive Behaviours show that playing games - Tetris to be specific - can be of benefit when it comes to controlling both traumatic memories and the cravings of addiction (Ars Technica). One study found that peopled who played 20 minutes of Tetris within six hours of being involved in a traffic accident suffered 62 per cent fewer flashbacks than those who carried out other activities of their choice. The other found that participants in an addiction study experienced a 13.9 per cent reduction in the strength of their cravings when they were prompted to play the game after each of seven daily surveys about their cravings. The researchers say that's enough of a difference to make an impact on whether someone manages to successfully resist their cravings or not.

Your old router is an absolute goldmine for troublesome hackers

The IXmap (Internet eXchange map), currently in beta, shows how internet traffic moves around the world and has a specific focus on highlighting government surveillance (WIRED). Based on Google Maps, the tool uses multiple layers to show the USA's National Security Agency's (NSA) traffic interception locations, those suspected of belonging to the spy agency and other vulnerable points. You can use the map to trace where your internet traffic is travelling. It is possible to enter an ISP, city or country, and then click on the search icon. As the map is an ongoing research project, it isn't possible to see all internet traffic routes but users are invited to get involved and add their own to the database.

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Fallout Shelter, Bethesda's addictive free-to-play vault-based colony management game/life simulator set in the Fallout universe is finally available on Steam, complete with trading cards and optional DLC to make your vault dwellers' lives a little easier (PC Gamer). To celebrate the new release, Bethesda has introduced 30 new quests for Fallout Shelter players on all platforms. The game originally came out on Android and iOS in 2015.

Funcom's supernatural MMORPG, The Secret World, is getting a free-to-play revamp that promises to transform the game into a "shared world" RPG that will allow players to make their way through its entire story either alone or with fellow adventurers (Rock, Paper, Shotgun). Named Secret World Legends and teased in a new trailer the revamped game looks set to retain its themes of occultism, shadowy conspiracies and ominous cosmic horror, but Funcom says that it'll benefit from "a redesigned combat system to make action feel more natural, more intuitive systems to interact with, enhanced visuals, and an improved flow of the quests, as well as the structure of the early game for new players." The new game will run alongside the original version, so existing players will be able to continue playing their campaigns on the original servers. You can sign up for the closed beta now.

Disney has released a brand new animated short by Pixar for us all to watch for free on YouTube (The Verge). Dante's Lunch... A Short Tail is a two-minute animation set in the world of Disney-Pixar's forthcoming film, Coco, featuring a dog chasing after his next meal. Coco, the first Pixar film to feature an entirely Latinx voice cast, promises to take viewers on a journey to the Land of the Dead and is in UK cinemas from December 1 this year.

A couple of weeks ago, I gave evidence to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport select committee that is examining the impact of triggering Article 50 on digital industries. It’s hard to predict anything with assurance until the government has completed negotiations, but it’s clear the uncertainty surrounding the movement of talent across borders, the future nature of the UK’s relationship with the European Investment Bank and the collaboration that’s a crucial element of scientific research will affect the decision-making ability of startups, established businesses and academic institutions, not to mention the legion of highly skilled EU nationals who work in every sector of the UK economy.